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Weezer Readies New Music, Rarities

Rivers Cuomo and Scott Shriner of Weezer perform at the Aragon Ballroom on December 1, 2009 in Chicago, Illinois.
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Even though its contract with Geffen Records has expired and it hasn't made any decisions about its future course, Weezer is hatching a variety of creative plans -- but the group isn't getting too specific about any of them yet. (An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Weezer had definitively left Geffen.)

"We're always planning and scheming something," bassist Scott Shriner told Billboard.com during a conference call to promote this year's Bonnaroo Music Festival, where Weezer will play on June 12. "We're always working on some new music. I can't really go into any detail about that yet, but we're all writing and working on new stuff."

And old stuff as well. Weezer is planning to release a deluxe, expanded edition of its 1996 sophomore album "Pinkerton;" no date has yet been set, though pre-orders are being taken. The group is also assembling an "Odds and Ends" collection of rarities that's expected out this year as well. "It's a ton of B-sides from a big period of time," Shriner says. "Rivers (Cuomo) has been mostly in charge of picking which songs are gonna be on that...I played on a lot of the songs. Some of the songs were around before I was in the band (since 2001). There's so many cool things that we've recorded for records that never made the (albums), I think they had to get out there. Finally it's going to happen."

One new piece of Weezer music that will be heard is a song the group recorded for the upcoming "Shrek Forever After" film, which opens May 21. It's the group's second musical contribution to the Shrek series, following "Make Believe" for "Shrek 2" in 2005, and Shriner reported that the new song "was really fun to do. We're all a fan of Shrek. A lot of us have kids. It just sounded like a really fun idea."

Shriner also said that Cuomo is "100 percent again" after the Dec. 6 tour bus accident in which he suffered three broken ribs. "We played a little show a couple months ago (Jan. 20 in Tallahassee, Fla.) and he was 75 percent, but...I'm sure he's ready to kick ass now," Shriner said. "He's strong and ready to go. He's a tough little dude, man. That guy bounces back pretty quick."

Weezer is taking it easy on the road this summer, however, with 13 mostly festival dates, and Shriner said he didn't expect many more to be added. "There are a few dates getting filled in along the way, but I think our big focus is to hit these festivals," he said. "I think we're just kind of looking at efficiency and the way to reach the most people. I don't know if anybody's super excited about getting in a bus again right now. This just seems to be the way it's going."